October 12, 2009

We're all Internet Fringe Now

The topic of the day seems to be that the White House has dismissed some bloggers as left wing fringe elements.

Via Pam's House Blend: In an NBC report less than 24 hours after the President declared his unwavering support for the LGBT community, the White House has decided to sh*t on citizen journalists on the left who are simply advocating for our civil rights. This is a real shot across the bow.

And this is surprising how? Blogging as a "fad" has been on its way down. The original composition of "the sphere" is changing. What once were several large liberal blogs and a multitude of smaller conservative blogs are beginning to lose to big media. How is that you may ask? Well staying power. Blogs, the few true blogs that are left, are run by one or maybe just a few individuals. While the larger corporate media can spend endless years waiting us out, we eventually tire and real life takes over.

So while you might see a rotation of blogs coming and going the most sucessful blogs these days are those who have reinvented themselves as smaller versions of "corporate media" Say a Hot Air or maybe a Huffpo.

Not to knock those blogs for being that way. Its just what they have done to survive and be successful. There are very few blogs that can produce revenue stream significant enough to actually support the bloggers who write them. Add to that the collapse of a few blog advertising streams and you begin to see the long term picture.

Is this what Chuck was foreseeing when he started trying to turn LGF into the next Dailykos? I've wondered myself. He was ahead of the curve before on blogs, so I tend to not just dismiss his personality change as just going a little bat-shit crazy. Maybe there's a point to it we're not seeing yet?

While we may think of ourselves as important, the ruling class of MSM pundits and the big political players think of all of us left and right as rather noisy and bothersome irritants. They've never had any true respect for the opinions of "the little people" other than to poll them so see how to get the next vote. Five minutes after the polls close you can kiss their ass until the next cycle.

I'm sorry but if you have not realized that by now, its time you woke up and smelled the house blend.

That being said, we Jawas will never quit. We might fade back or forward. We might break a story now and then. Or we might just have a lot of work to do and not blog much at all. But one thing is for sure...

We freaking love being rather noisy and bothersome irritants!

So that's a function we're proud of and we enjoy. So you lefty fringe elements. Get out there and be noisy and bothersome irritants. Its your job as a blogger to do so.

Just don't expect the "establishment" to, you know, actually respect or care all that much. All of us "citizen journalists" are going to find out we're just another bothersome irritating internet fringe element sooner or later.

Why fight it? Just accept it, sharpen up your snark blade and keep pounding away. Because there's not much in life more satisfying than knowing you are irritating the hell out of some incompetent government boob in DC no matter what side of the political aisle you find yourself on.

Update: As Doom pointed out in comments, we all may be ankle biting Chihuahuas, but you get enough ankle biting Chihuahuas and you have a "functional mountain lion hunting crew" as demonstrated by the White House's quick retraction today.

Now which statement do you think more accurately reflects the true feelings at the White House? I reckon it was the first one, then they had to eat some crow and issue the second one.